Even though famous chow chow Genghis Khan didn’t continue his winning ways in the finals at the Westminster dog show, he was undeniably the breakout star of the event. (Poor, adorable Malachy the Pekinese.) Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner, unable to get Khan himself on the line, settled for the next best thing, his owner Martha Stewart. The pair talked about her teenage-Soviet-gymnast-level expectations for the dog (” If he wants to go back to the Garden, he has to continue to show … he has a lot of stuff to do”), Khan’s strong, apparently ethnic-solidarity-based relationship with Malachy (“They’re two Asian dogs! They’re Chinese!”), and more, including the chow chow’s pre-Garden meal at thePlaza.

And when he goes to the Plaza what does he like to eat?I brought his food. We don’t serve him table food.

But I noticed he sat at the table and he was very well behaved.Oh yes, he’s like that. He’s just so regal.

He seemed like an aristocratic human being.He is! Very polite. And also, they don’t want to poop in front of you. They’ll pee in front of you, but they want to go private when they poop. They’ll go behind a tree, under a bush — they’re very private when theypoop.